User blog:Emptylord/Blogs/Upcoming class rework
In the near future we are to see a complete rework to the game's class system, which Riot covered the basics of in this blog. At the start of June, they published a thread in the Dev Corner that details the planned roles for each champions. In short, the planned classes are: * - Defensive casters that protect and create opportunities for allies. ** - Controllers that specialize in locking down the enemy and creating threat zones. ** - Controllers that heal, shield or enchant their allies. * - Tank-slayer hybrids. Both durable and a damage threat. ** - Mobile fighters. These champions excel at jumping on priority targets. ** - Immobile fighters. These champions are living area-of-denial - go near them at your own peril. * - Offensive casters that cripple and burst. ** - Mages that master range, but are the most fragile to being jumped upon. ** - Mages that focus on locking down and devastating targets from range. ** - Immobile mages that seek to be in the fray - wrecking all nearby enemies. * - Marksmen excel at dealing reliable sustained damage at range. No official subclasses, but the following were considered: ** - Marksmen that make a steady advance with high range damage and zoning. ** - Marksmen with high in-fight mobility but have poor range/freedom to pick targets. * - Fragile but agile damage-focused champions. ** - Slayers that specialize in getting onto high priority targets. ** - Slayers that have poor target selection, but instead boast the ability to kill anyone they can reach. * - Champions excel at taking damage and disruption, but are not a significant damage threat. ** - Front-line tanks. These champions lead the charge and shatter the enemy's lines. ** - Protection tanks. These champions stand steadfast and protect their allies. * Unclassified - These champions do not fit into the above classifications. You can find a compiled list of champions next to their new class assignment List of champions/Attributes|here. But I take a number of issues to the new class structure and, in some cases, the champions assigned to those classes. :Note that some champion re-classifications were based on Riot's target fantasy of the champion, rather than their current build from a patch-to-patch perspective. I did try to take this into account, especially when it was explicitly stated (e.g. it was stated that Ekko's fantasy is for a scrappy skirmisher, and the at-the-time fad of playing him as a tank would not affect his classification). Again, trying to be as concise as possible: * Duplicate definitions ** Tanks and Disruptors are both defined by their ability to disrupt. ** Vanguards and Divers are both defined by their ability to dive into the enemy team. *** In fact, the only difference between the listed champions seems to be whether or not they have AD or AP scalings. ** Battlemages and Juggernauts are both defined as "devastating at close range". *** In fact, half of the Battlemages are AP Juggernauts - e.g. , , and . ** Controllers and Wardens are both defined by their ability to protect their allies. ** Skirmishers and Scrappers (unofficial) are both defined by their poor target selection but strong dueling potential. * Poor class boundaries ** Skirmisher does not include champions like and . Despite not explicitly mentioned, Slayer and Marksman seems to be mutually exclusive. ** Many Juggernauts are what people think of when they think "tank", e.g. and , yet Juggernaut is not a Tank subclass. ** Controllers are described as "protecting their allies", but does not include the Warden subclass. ** Artillery is a subclass of Mage and so excludes non-mages like Urgot and Ezreal. Artillery, Mage and Marksman could almost be described as three distinct Carry subtypes - Poke, Burst and Consistent DPS. * Poorly defined classes ** It is a joke to say Vanguards are "low damage threats". Why does this subclass even exist? ** Most of the listed Battlemages have no interest in being anywhere near "the fray" - e.g. , , and . ** "Fighter" is literally defined as a combination of two other classes. ** Disruptor does not include champions like and , who are both "Unclassified". Kennen is presumably excluded due to not being a "Support". * Specific Champions - This section is the most subjective. ** , and are both classified as Divers, apparently forsaking their Assassin fantasies. ** and are Divers, while is a Skirmisher. ** is classified as a Mage, rather than a Marksman. ** is set to be reclassified as a Warden, which conflicts with my fantasy for him and how he's currently played. ** Many champions are missing secondary tags. As an aside, Riot's decision to rename the Support class to "Controller" is an attempt to address the atmosphere that treats Support Players as unimportant, secondary, or subordinate. I am personally disagree with this approach. The Support role is all about supporting your team mates - changing the name won't fix players who actually believe "supporting" is equivalent to "carry's slave". In my opinion, the issue with Supports being considered secondary is due to the lack of in-match representation of their achievement. Of course carries think they're the only important thing when the Scoreboard only tracks kills. Heroes of the Storm, for example, tracks Healing Done (for Supports) and shows Damage Taken (for tanks) on the Scoreboard (likely hidden for other classes to prevent flaming), although I'd personally swap Damage Taken for Damage Blocked (i.e. intercepted), assuming the game can track damage you prevented your allies from taking (and this would include shields). UPDATE: May 24th, 2017 * Disruptor subclass renamed Catcher. ** The main reason was because they're removing area-of-denial champions from this subclass, and consequently felt the originally name didn't adequately describe the new population of "catch an enemy out" champions. I agree with most of the champion's they removed from this class, and like that most of those champions also went to the same place, but I hate the new name. I'm not sure using a pejorative term for submissive gay men is the best way to change the public perception of Supports as being the team's bitch. I actually laughed. * "Unclassified" implemented as an actual class. ** is being used by this Wikia as a conjectural term for the class. ** Still includes: , , , and . ** Now includes: , , , , , , , , , ** No longer includes: . ** I feel like there was a wasted opportunity here. This class fairly consistently covers zone-control champions - even champions like Azir and Zilean are zone-controllers as a secondary trait. If you kick Graves back into the Skirmisher class; Mini Gnar and Kayle back into the Marksman class; and maybe add champions like Anivia, Taliyah and Karthus here - you've got yourself a class of champions who are can be consistently described as anti-PVP or zone controllers. With the exception of Karthus, these champions are essentially ranged juggernauts (in the sense of they create something at range, and not necessarily attack range). ** Urgot's continued refusal to join the Artillery class baffles me, but I imagine it's because it's a Mage subclass. * The Good ** secondary class removed (Battlemage). ** changed to Assassin from Skirmisher. ** changed to Assassin from Skirmisher. ** changed to Assassin from Diver. ** changed to Diver from Vanguard (although I think I'd still rather go one further into Assassin). ** secondary class changed to Catcher from Burst Mage. * The Bad ** Riot is still putting short range mages into the Battlemage class, without redefining the class. *** changed to Battlemage from Catcher. *** changed to Battlemage from Catcher. *** changed to Battlemage from Burst Mage. *** and are still Battlemages. * The What ** Riot seems to have forgotten what the Diver class is all about. *** changed to Diver from Juggernaut. *** changed to Diver from Vanguard. ** I guess the Assassin update failed. *** changed to Burst Mage from Assassin. *** changed to Diver from Assassin. ** Riot is intentionally trying to remove as many Secondary classes as possible. *** changed to Vanguard from Warden. *** secondary class removed (Skirmisher). *** second class removed (Battlemage). Solutions: # Back to the basic: DPS, Tank (Threat Generators) and Support. #* Issues: #*# People within the League community associate "DPS" with consistent damage, rather than average damage output. League players would find it incongruous for Mages and Assassins to be tagged as "DPS" (despite Mages having the highest average DPS in the game). #*# People within the League community associate "Tank" with low damage threats, despite this referring to very few champions. League players would find it incongruous for champions like Jax, Riven and Fiora to be classified as "Tanks", when all three of them are the perfect example of threat generators who draw attention away from squishier team mates. # Take two: #* Slayer - Champions who output the most damage. Requires positioning or protection. #* Fighter - Champions who get into the thick of fights. Have a persistent threat that draws attention away from Slayers and Controllers. #* Controller - Champions who protect and enable their allies. # Introduce a Zone Control class. #* Specialist - Champions who excel at avoiding or denying PVP, including PVE. List of Subclasses= | | | }} |-|List of Champions= Notes: * I made a deliberate attempt to be less stringent when assigning secondary classes, particularly when concerning "Support" subclasses. If Riot wants players to consider Supports to be valuable - don't make it the shortest list of champions, especially if that shortlist is composed largely of the boring-healer-types. If people think healing is boring then let them know just how many other support options there are! ;Thought Process * Rebranding the Threat Generation class from Tank to Fighter is more accommodating of the Skirmisher class (which I will admit still sometimes toe-the-line, although in a lot of the iffy cases there probably is an argument to move specific champions to the Rogue class). Riot and the League community as a whole also seem to love the "Fighter" brand, so it makes more sense when merging Tank and Fighter to keep the "Fighter" name. * "Marksman" was renamed to "Ranger" to avoid association with Attack Damage, and now includes champions like , and . * "Assassin" was renamed to "Rogue" to avoid confusion with the verb "to assassinate", or "to blow someone up". Burst is not a unique feature of the cut-throat class, and so their name shouldn't imply otherwise (similar to why "Carry" was renamed). I mean, Malzahar and Xerath are both listed as Assassins in the old system due to their ability to assassinate a target - despite their utter lack of class-defining agile-ness (in fact, both literally immobilize themselves). * The class description is intended to be part of the subclass description. ** While both Rogues and Enforcers look for targets, Rogues either don't want or can't handle the attention - preferring in-and-out strategies. This is part of the reason why I opt'd to make Skirmisher a Fighter subclass instead of a Slayer subclass - champions like Xin Zhao, Jax and Fiora don't necessarily need to get out after killing their target, and can usually handle being focused for a while. ** While both Disruptors and Enforcers have high Crowd Control output, the CC of Enforcers is bound by the "in the fray" nature (and I added "point blank" in an attempt to be more explicit). Janna knocks you up with a skill shot, enabling her allies without exposing herself; while Gragas knocks you up with his belly. Champions like and should be tagged as both Enforcer and Disruptor, since they possess ranged set-up tools AND in-fight threat. Part of the issue with Riot's rework was the apparent unwillingness to hand out secondary roles. * I'm including champions that create decoys as a form of Zoning. Category:Blog posts